Alberto Luis Ávalos was detained after investigators linked him to a killing in Quitilipi that left five dead, including Bernardo Ávalos, a six-month-old baby. The case began as a house fire and turned into a quintuple homicide probe.
The dead were Rocío Aranda, three children and Bernardo. Fernando Romero, chief of the Policía de Chaco, described it as “De los crímenes más atroces desde que somos provincia, en 1953.”
Quitilipi on Sunday
The attack happened on Sunday around 6 a.m. at a precarious home on Islas Malvinas al 1200 in barrio Matadero, Quitilipi. Investigators believe Ávalos, 25, strangled his partner, killed the three children and then set the house on fire while holding his baby in his arms.
Police found Rocío Aranda dead inside the house. They identified the child victims as Franco Aranda, Adriana Barrios and Bruno Barrios, and reported cut wounds on their necks plus burns on different parts of their bodies.
Police and hospital findings
Bernardo Ávalos died from smoke inhalation after the fire. After police arrived, officers found Ávalos unconscious at the front of the house, while the baby was unconscious in the arms of the paternal grandmother and later entered the hospital without vital signs.
Ávalos was examined at the hospital and diagnosed with acute psychosis. That medical step came after neighbors rescued him when he tried to hang himself, adding a second layer to a case that first appeared to be a fatal fire.
Investigators also seized a Tramontina knife, two lengths of rope, a lighter, three cell phones and a piece of sheet with reddish stains. The physical evidence, together with the injuries on the victims, supported the homicide theory that replaced the initial fire reading.
Complejo II in Presidencia Roque
After the scene inspection, firefighters and police found four other bodies inside the house, and Ávalos was transferred to the Complejo II of the Servicio Penitenciario Provincial in Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña. The move keeps the suspect in custody while the Justicia system works through the next steps in the case.
Quitilipi has a little more than 32,000 inhabitants, and the case now sits in a narrow frame: five deaths, one detained suspect, and a household where the fire no longer explains the evidence. A reader following the case now needs the forensic and judicial record to determine how far the homicide theory will go, because the motive is still not part of the file as presented.
